1 week Ago
People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall health and getting good sleep is imperative. However, if exercise in the evening may disrupt our sleep, or make us feel the need to be more sedentary to recover, a key question emerges – what is the best way to balance our 24 hours to optimize our health? Our research attempted to answer this for risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. We found the optimal amount of sleep was 8.
3 hours, while for light activity and moderate to vigorous activity, it was best to get 2.2 hours each. Finding the right balance Current health guidelines recommend you stick to a sensible regime of moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity 2.
5–5 hours per week. However mounting evidence now suggests how you spend your day can have meaningful ramifications for your health. In addition to moderate-to vigorous-intensity physical activity, this means the time you spend sitting, standing, doing light physical activity (such as walking around your house or office) and sleeping.
Our research looked at more than 2,000 adults who wore body sensors that could interpret their physical behaviors, for seven days. This gave us a sense of how they spent their average 24 hours. At the start of the study participants had their waist circumference, blood sugar and insulin sensitivity measured.
The body sensor and assessment data was matched and analyzed then tested against .
